Coolest Under the Sea Birthday Cake Recipe Ideas

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Under the Sea Index:

(Click on an image below to view the enlarged
photo and preparation tips submitted by our readers)

Ocean 01

Luau 01

Mermaid 01

Beach 01

Beach 02

Octopus 01

Octopus 02

Ocean cake submitted by:

Jessica J.
Bowie, MD

This cake was for my son's third birthday party. We decided on an ocean theme. The cake is just a yellow birthday cake recipe. I iced it with a blue powdered sugar icing. The sand is crushed cookies.

To find the candy rocks and shells I had to search several local cake decorating stores, they were difficult to find but they made the cake.

The fish are all gummy fish and the seaweed is just air heads cut into thin strips and then twisted.

This Ocean birthday cake recipe was very easy to do and everyone at the party loved it. I served it with blue jello with gummy fish swimming in it. I just had fun and played around with it.

For my daughter's 10th birthday, she wanted to have a Luau-themed party. For the cake, I found a picture of a cake on the Internet and took it from there. My daughter, Heather, requested chocolate, so we started with a basic box cake mix, which I made in a 9 X 13 pan.

When it was cool, I carefully removed the cake and put it on a cutting board. Our idea was to have an ocean, a beach, and a "grassy" area on the cake. So, we frosted the bottom and top thirds of the cake in white and the middle section in cream.

Using food color spray (you can buy this at most grocery stores), we made the bottom third blue for the ocean, and the top third green for grass. You could also add coconut to the grass section and spray it green if you'd like, but we opted not to because most of the kids "don't like coconut." For the "sand on the beach," we sprinkled brown sugar over the cream-colored frosting section.

We shopped at our local "party store" and found a little Hawaiian boy and girl and some plastic palm trees, which we placed on the beach. We also put edible sugar flowers on the beach and the grass. In the ocean, we added gummy fish and octopuses. And of course, ten candles. This birthday cake recipe was a hit with all the kids and delicious to boot!

When my youngest daughter turned 5, her favorite movie was "The Little Mermaid". I saw a version of this birthday cake recipe on the Internet and had to try it. It looked like so much fun to make - and the results were amazing! All the parents were taking photos of the cake before it was cut so they could show their friends.

For this birthday cake recipe you'll use a round layer pan, a regular sheet pan, and 12 cupcakes. It took two cake mixes to prepare this cake.

The cakes were prepared and baked according to instructions on box. After cooling, the sheet cake was cut and assembled according to the diagram below:

One tip that I have found especially useful when cutting cakes into various shapes is to refrigerate it for a few hours first. The cake will be firmer and less "crumbly" when you start cutting it. Also, try to use a serrated edge knife for a cleaner cut.

I used toothpicks to anchor the various sections of cake together, as well as a little icing as "glue" between the different parts. The round layer and torso section in the body was iced in a peach/flesh tone; the tail and fins were iced in a teal color. I used green icing to create a "bra" on the torso. The scales on the mermaid are good old fashioned Necco wafers! Just push them into the icing enough to anchor them. Start at the bottom and work your way up, so that the wafers overlap one another like shingles.

The mermaid's face was completed by using red and black licorice whips for lips and eyelashes. The cupcakes were iced using a large star tip in a "swirl" motion, then arranged around the layer cake to resemble hair. I also purchased some teal edible glitter that I sprinkled on the tail and fin sections of the mermaid for some extra sparkle. This birthday cake recipe was great in that the smaller children at the party could eat the cupcakes and didn't have to fight with utensils.

For my eldest daughter's 8th birthday, we hosted a party at one of the local city pools. Being huge fans of the ocean, we decided a beach cake was in order! I had always wanted to try using piping gel, and this provided the perfect opportunity.

I used a large sheet cake pan and two box cake mixes for this birthday cake recipe. Obviously, it could easily be made using a smaller pan and less cake batter. Once baked and cooled, I iced the entire cake with a thin layer of white icing. The "sand" was created using granulated brown sugar. The "ocean" was created using piping gel tinted with blue icing paste and "roughed up" with the tip of my icing spatula to make it look like waves.

I striped two sides of my icing bag with the same blue icing paste so that when I piped the swirl border, it had an ocean-foam effect. Applying the icing in a swirling motion would achieve the same effect. A beach umbrella and towel from a Barbie play set, along with ocean-themed candles with the wicks cut off provided the rest of the decoration.

Of all the cakes I have made, I believe this one was my favorite birthday cake recipe.

My cousin used this birthday cake recipe for her daughter's 4th birthday party. The party had a "Hawaiian Luau" theme, so she had to come up with an original birthday cake recipe. She decided to make a beach!

For this birthday cake recipe, she used a large sheet cake pan and iced the entire cake with white icing. She then made "waves" by spreading on thick blue icing. The beach is crushed graham crackers. The palm trees are pretzels, and the leaves are Fruit by the Foot, cut into leaf shapes. She made crabs on the beach with red icing, and used gummy dolphins in the "ocean".

I used this birthday cake recipe for my friend's son's first birthday. He carries a stuffed orange octopus and she asked me to come up with an idea for an octopus cake. Here it is, and it really was simple to make!

For this Octopus birthday cake recipe, I used the Wilton round 3D sports ball pan. I used white cake mix, but decreased my oil to 1 tablespoon instead of what it calls for on the box because it makes the cake a little more firm. I used butter cream icing to "glue" the halves together, and then frosted over the entire thing with my star tip and orange butter cream icing. Then I took 8 strawberry shortcake rolls (little Debbie) and positioned them around the ball head for the legs. I continued the orange butter cream with the star tip and then added a little pointed ending on each leg with more built-up icing.

For the eyes, I used plain white butter cream, and smoothed it over with my wet pinky finger. I added a dot of black for the pupils.

For the mouth, I smoothed over a bit of the orange and made a red candy tongue from candy melts. I did that by melting the candy and pouring a tongue shape onto tin foil, and peeling it off when it was hardened. My butter cream icing recipe is as follows: